BERLIN - Boxes filled with bananas and
cocaine were delivered to five Berlin supermarkets in what police on Tuesday
called a "logistical error" by drug smugglers.

Supermarket staff discovered the
containers with a total of 140 kg (around 300 pounds) of cocaine on Monday shortly before the fruit
went on sale to the public, police and customs investigators said.

It was the largest discovery of cocaine
in Germany's capital in about 15 years and has an estimated black market value
of around $8 million, according to police.

"We were of course surprised,"
senior police officer Olaf Schremm, who heads the local drug investigation
department, told reporters. "I don't know where the mistake was in the
perpetrators' delivery chain."

The banana cartons, part of a
consignment of 1,134 boxes, were brought by ship from Colombia to Hamburg and
delivered to a fruit wholesaler in Berlin. Cocaine was found in seven of them,
Schremm said.

The boxes were eventually delivered to
five supermarkets in the Berlin area, but investigators said the intended
destination of the cocaine was unclear.

Masked officers in bulletproof vests
showed the seized boxes to media. The cocaine will be stored and eventually
destroyed.

Drugs are often smuggled in container
ships from South America to Europe, the police said, adding that it is very
difficult to keep track of thousands of containers which are stored in the port
of Hamburg for only a short time.

"At the end of the day, it's beyond
one's control," Schremm said.

German authorities say drug smugglers
use air mail or couriers to import cocaine more often than ships. In 2012,
investigators seized 1.26 metric tons of cocaine in total.